Sinn Fein has identified a €2.2 billion investment in housing that could provide 36,500 new homes over five years.

Party Leader Gerry Adams said their goal is to bring forward a report with practical recommendations and solutions that the next government will implement.

Mr Adams said: "The construction of social housing has been in decline for ten consecutive years under the outgoing Fine Gael/Labour government, and the Fianna Fáil-led government that preceded it.

"A report by the Department of the Environment has revealed that nearly six thousand citizens are in homeless emergency accommodation. That includes one thousand eight hundred and eighty-one children.

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"In my own constituency, there are over five thousand applications for housing on Louth County Council's waiting list. It has built nine social houses in the last two years. This is unacceptable and is the responsibility of government.

"Citizens need homes. Real homes. Not hotel rooms, not B&B's, not hostels. Sinn Féin believes in the right of every citizen - man, woman and child - to a home, whatever their circumstances. That is achievable.

"We have identified €2.2 billion investment in housing that could provide 36,500 new homes over five years. We want to see a minimum of 4,000 of NAMA's 20,000 private houses used as social houses. We want to deliver security and certainty for tenants, and to support homeowners and buyers. We want to stop the profiteering of banks at the cost of mortgage holders."

(CD/LM)